Agency: Army Corps of Engineers

In a controversial
case outside of Victoria, Texas, the Army Corps of Engineers has
uncovered the largest Early Archaic cemetery (ca. 5,000 B.C.) found
west of the Mississippi. The archeological community considers the
human remains of exceptional scientific importance and has called
for their full analysis.

Several Indian
tribes, however, believe the cemetery is a sacred site and that
the remains should not be analyzed but reinterred. The Corps must
weigh the need for scientific study of human remains against the
need to respect the concerns of descendants.

In 2001, the Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District undertook
an archeological investigation of the National Register-eligible Buckeye
Knoll site, as part of the Section 106 review process prior to enlarging
a channel in Victoria, Texas. During the dig, the agency encountered numerous
prehistoric burials, and by the time the excavations concluded, the remains
of 79 individuals had been removed from the site.

Excavation at Buckeye Knoll, near Victoria, TX (photo
courtesy of Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District and Coastal Environments,
Inc.)

The work was carried out under the terms of a Programmatic Agreement
executed in 1990 among the Corps, the Texas State Historic Preservation
Officer, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). For
reasons not yet clear to ACHP, potentially interested Indian tribes and
ACHP were not consulted.

Because the excavations were on private land, the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act does not apply in this case. Under the
National Historic Preservation Act and ACHPs Section 106 regulations,
however, Federal agencies should consult with interested Indian tribes
before excavating historic properties significant to those tribes. But
such consultation did not take place until after nearly 80 disinterments,
which uncovered one of the three largest early cemeteries with preserved
human remains in North America. The Corps moved the remains and artifacts
to temporary storage to prevent damage from exposure and vandalism.

Beginning in February 2002, the Corps and the owner of the land that
contains the cemetery, the DuPont Corporation, have met with the Texas
State Historic Preservation Officer, four federally recognized Indian
tribes, the Society for American Archaeology, and the Texas Archeological
Society. They also held a well-attended public meeting for persons interested
in the case, and two local historic commissions have requested additional
public meetings.

The Corps and some members of the preservation community, including the
State Historic Preservation Officer, consider the Early Archaic find of
exceptional scientific importance and would like to see the human remains
fully analyzed because they provide a unique opportunity for archeologists
to answer questions about health, diet, and lifeways of Early Archaic
populations in North America.

Indian tribes, however, point out that the Corps should have consulted
with them before removing Native American human remains from the site.
The tribes object to the proposed analyses, which would destroy small
portions of bone, and have requested that the remains be reinterred. They
also raise the concern that the human remains are from a portion of Buckeye
Knoll that will not be affected by the proposed Victoria Channel project.

In June, 2002, as a result of requests from both Indian tribes and local
historical commissions, ACHP informed the Corps that it would participate
in consultation, and asked the agency for a status report on the case.
The Corps is compiling the information requested by ACHP and plans to
make its recommendation on the treatment and disposition of the remains
and artifacts by the end of the summer. This proposal will be provided
for review to all parties.

Under the terms of the 1990 Programmatic Agreement, the Corps must weigh
the need for scientific study of human remains against the need to respect
the concerns of descendants. If a dispute arises, ACHP will make recommendations
to the Corps on how to proceed.